MP push for more Labor reviews

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ALP backbencher Roger Price yesterday embarrassed Mark Latham - already on the defensive over the backflip on higher patient charges for drugs - by saying Labor should review all legislation it had opposed.

Mr Price said he had always had reservations about holding up the legislation to increase the patient charge for prescription drugs. "I come from a party that says governments should govern".

Labor, in search of funds for its election program, has agreed to support this $1.1 billion measure after two years' opposition, meaning Australians will pay up to $4.90 extra for a script from January 1.

Pressed by reporters on whether Labor should drop its opposition to a tightening of conditions for the disability pension, Mr Price said, "I think we should look at everything we've held back in the past". But he said Labor should continue to block unfair dismissal provisions.

Mr Latham defended the reversal on the PBS, saying Labor was willing to take the hard decisions to fund its policies.

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"Budgets are about choices, and the truth is that we cannot fund everything," he told Parliament. "We need to set priorities, to make choices and some of them are hard choices. That is what Labor has done this week."

Finance spokesman Bob McMullan, quizzed about whether the Opposition would consider other backflips, ruled out softening opposition to the disability changes or the full sale of Telstra. Selling Telstra would be bad for the budget, he said.

Health Minister Tony Abbott accused Mr Latham of "left-wing Hansonism". He said the Opposition Leader went to the focus groups to find out everyone's gripes and then struck poses.

Doctors and health advocates yesterday called on Labor to put the saving from its support for prescription drug price rises back into health.

A spokesman for Shadow Health Minister Julia Gillard said there was "still money to come" and health policies to come.

Australian Medical Association vice-president Mukesh Haikerwal said Labor should spell out how it would spend the money. Catholic Health Australia chief executive Francis Sullivan said Labor's existing policies to boost bulk billing, provide free dental care to 500,000 Australians, and create Medicare teams for health "hotspots" was not enough to distinguish Labor as the party for health.